{"id":19135,"date":"2016-12-14T23:34:53","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T15:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/syrian-crisis-puts-spaceflight-industries-blacksky-satellite-data-platform-to-the-test\/"},"modified":"2016-12-14T23:34:53","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T15:34:53","slug":"syrian-crisis-puts-spaceflight-industries-blacksky-satellite-data-platform-to-the-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/syrian-crisis-puts-spaceflight-industries-blacksky-satellite-data-platform-to-the-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian crisis puts Spaceflight Industries\u2019 BlackSky satellite data platform to the test"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_296790\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-296790\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-296790 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161214-blacksky-2-630x388.png\" alt=\"BlackSky platform shows Aleppo\" width=\"630\" height=\"388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161214-blacksky-2-630x388.png 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161214-blacksky-2-768x473.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161214-blacksky-2.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-296790\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">BlackSky\u2019s online imaging platform can link a satellite view of the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo to real-time social media streams about the area to provide greater context. (Spaceflight Industries Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries is giving&nbsp;early adopters&nbsp;a preview of its online BlackSky satellite imagery platform, which blends overhead views of sites around the world with social-media posts and other reports&nbsp;about what\u2019s shown in the pictures.<\/p>\n<p>One of the first subjects to be tackled is the humanitarian crisis in the Syrian city of Aleppo, where tens of thousands of civilians have been caught in devastating bombing attacks and house-to-house fighting. That\u2019s apt,&nbsp;because the members of the early adopter program include the United Nations as well as the World Bank and RS Metrics, a company that uses satellite imagery&nbsp;to track global developments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTracking critical global events as they happen is of interest to all of our early customers,\u201d Jodi Sorenson, vice president of marketing and communications at Spaceflight Industries, told GeekWire in an emailed comment. \u201cWe chose to use Aleppo as an example to demonstrate the platform\u2019s ability to provide insights on areas of particular international importance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The BlackSky platform offers access to imagery from more than 10 Earth-watching satellites, including Korea\u2019s KOMPSAT spacecraft and UrtheCast\u2019s Deimos-2. Customers can also use the platform to order up near-real-time images of specified sites.<\/p>\n<p>As BlackSky builds up its own 60-satellite constellation, pictures from those spacecraft will be put online as well. The first BlackSky satellite, a prototype called Pathfinder-1, was launched this year in preparation for the start of commercial space operations in 2017. The full constellation is due&nbsp;to be in orbit by 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The platform offers much more than raw imagery: It uses curated data feeds as well as machine-learning tools to link up the pictures with news reports, social-media posts and other information about the locations shown. Users can also scan through satellite data and additional context based on specified themes, such as geopolitical conflicts, disease outbreaks or energy resources.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Why BlackSky Global Pathfinder 1 launched by ISRO will revolutionize EO industry\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nfkvFVDE-HI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur business plan has always been to look at the planet in real time, in every spectrum, to solve real-world problems,\u201d Spaceflight Industries CEO Jason Andrews&nbsp;said in a news release. \u201cToday we are announcing significant progress on that journey. For the first time, organizations can fuse satellite imagery with a wide array of data services contextualized in time and space to better understand the most critical issues of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rakesh Narasimhan, executive vice president at BlackSky, said the platform could be used to direct humanitarian relief, secure borders, track economic assets or monitor maritime activity, among other applications. Availability will be expanded beyond the Early Adopter Program as BlackSky, a service subsidiary of Spaceflight Industries, develops the program further.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving the support of these high-caliber partners and customers at this early stage is very encouraging, and we intend to use their feedback to ensure the platform is poised to provide actionable and tangible value to our global society,\u201d Narasimhan said.<\/p>\n<p>Other companies are also getting a foothold in the expanding market for satellite imaging: Just last week, San Francisco-based Planet opened an office in Bellevue, Wash., which will focus on the development of its satellite data platform. And Planetary Resources, based in Redmond, Wash., is working on its Ceres satellite constellation for hyperspectral Earth imaging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BlackSky\u2019s online imaging platform can link a satellite view of the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo to real-time social media streams about the area to provide greater context. (Spaceflight Industries Graphic) Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries is giving&nbsp;early adopters&nbsp;a preview of its online BlackSky satellite imagery platform, which blends overhead views of sites around the world with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2128,20,2340],"class_list":["post-19135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blacksky-global","tag-satellite","tag-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}